The Ultimate Fighter Live’s Dakota Cochrane sets the record “straight” on his gay porn past

On Friday, March 9, 32 lightweight mixed martial artists will compete for a spot on either Coach Urijah Faber or Coach Dominick Cruz’s team on “The Ultimate Fighter Live“, the UFC’s long-running reality series which, armed with a new live format, has moved from Spike TV to FX.

One of the contestants who will be fighting in one of 16 live bouts that will air on the March 9th premiere is 25-year-old Nebraska native Dakota Cochrane (11-2).

From all appearances Cochrane looks similar, in general, to many young up-and-coming fighters who have dreams of being in the UFC. He’s strong, athletic, well built, has a good record with 11 wins and only two losses, including five wins via submission.

In September of last year Cochrane won a unanimous decision over former WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner at Titan Fighting Championships 20. It was Cochrane’s seventh straight victory. He seems like an ideal prospect for the UFC.

One more thing… about seven years ago Cochrane worked as an actor in some gay porn movies. He reportedly made about $80 grand.

It is not yet guaranteed Cochrane will make it into the TUF house, but if wins his fight on March 9th he will get to spend 13 weeks in a house with 15 other MMA fighters. During Tuesday’s episode of The MMA Show podcast, host Mauro Ranallo asked Cochrane if he thinks his controversial past will affect the way the other fighters in the house treat him.

“I’ve kind of dealt with this stuff ever since I did it,” Cochrane said. “So, I am straight, but I obviously I did something… I did those movies and it was for the money and people are going to be opinionated. There’s going to be haters and people that don’t really care about it, and those people that don’t really care and actually know me, and that’s really what I’m really focused on is people who actually care about me as a person and know that was a mistake.”

The news about Cochrane’s colorful past really only hit the MMA media circles in a big way this week when the names of the TUF cast were announced. Cochrane’s manager, Kirk Schuster from Hollow Point Entertainment, said, “We knew right off the bat this was going to be something we were going to have to deal with for Dakota as far as the media goes, but the truth of the matter is only God can judge, not me. And Dakota has lived with me and my family, he’s been a good training partner for the people that he trains with at his gym. He’s a role model in our area and he’s just going to go to the show and he’s going to show everybody what he’s really about. People do make mistakes in their past and unfortunately… We’re being forthcoming and up front with Dakota did something he’s not proud of, but we can not change what happened in the past, we can only change tomorrow.”

One of the requirements for fighters when they try out for The Ultimate Fighter is that they bring an audition tape with fight footage and at least a two-minute interview. According to Schuster, Cochrane was honest about his past when he submitted his audition tape to the UFC. “Dakota was straight up front with his past about what may come up so there were no surprises and nobody got sucker punched,” Schuster said.

Cochrane has been fighting professionally since 2009. Ranallo asked him if he has had to deal with discrimination from fighters and promoters. “Not really to my face,” Cochrane said. “But a lot of people would say some things. A lot of people would quit the gym. I talked to the gym owners here in town when it came out and they asked me if I was going to continue doing it or how long it had been since I had done it and stuff like that. They kind of know that I’m not going to make that mistake again. They know me as a person and they’re not going to judge me on my past cause there’s people that do a lot more stupid things like breaking the law and people don’t judge them as harshly as I’m getting judged.”

Thirteen weeks is a long time to be living in close quarters with 15 other testosterone-filled MMA fighters. But Cochrane said he is ready to deal with whatever may come his way.

“Like I said, I’ve dealt with this for a long time,” he explained. “If someone has got the balls to say it to my face, hey say your opinion and get it over with, you know, so it’s out there and we don’t have to talk about it anymore. If you know what I’m really about then there should be no question about it.”

Everyone knows reality television always needs a little drama to keep it interesting. But is this the kind of drama the UFC really wants or could there be a ticking time bomb here? Is it possible Cochrane’s gay porn may have even helped him get chosen for the show? Where is Chandella Powell? So many questions…

According to Schuster there is only one reason Cochrane is right for The Ultimate Fighter Live on FX. “Cause he’s absolutely the best fighter for that show right now and he’s here to show the world he’s going to be the next 155 champ,” he explained.

“The Ultimate Fighter Live” on FX premieres Friday, March 9, with a special two-and-a-half-hour LIVE show starting at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, and tape-delayed in the Pacific and Mountain time zones at 9 p.m. PT/10 p.m. MT. The MMA Show podcast with Mauro Ranallo airs weekdays on TheScore.com and on iTunes.